{"id":567,"date":"2008-08-24T14:28:43","date_gmt":"2008-08-24T13:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=567"},"modified":"2009-09-26T12:08:32","modified_gmt":"2009-09-26T11:08:32","slug":"sunday-night-baseball-on-five-dodgers-versus-the-phillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=567","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Night Baseball on Five – Dodgers versus the Phillies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Five<\/p>\n

Tonight’s game on Five throws up a clash between the second-placed teams in the NL East and the NL West.\u00c2\u00a0 The Phillies have been overtaken by the Mets for the top spot in the former division, while the Dodgers have run the D-Backs close without ever making a break to get ahead and put some distance between themselves and their rivals from the Arizona desert.\u00c2\u00a0 Coming to the end of August, both teams will be looking to put some wins together to kick-start their challenges heading into the final month of the regular season.\u00c2\u00a0 First pitch is set for 01.05 BST, but Five’s coverage is not scheduled to begin until fifteen minutes later.\u00c2\u00a0 It looks like we will probably miss the first inning as a result.\u00c2\u00a0 Another showing of ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ takes precedence on Five unfortunately.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The series so far<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tonight’s game is the third of a four-game series and the Dodgers will be desperate to win tonight after losing the first two.\u00c2\u00a0 The Phillies have dominated on both sides of the ball so far, scoring seventeen runs and conceding only three.\u00c2\u00a0 In the first game, the Phillies were something of an afterthought in the light of Greg Maddux making his debut for the Dodgers after rejoining the team from the Padres during the preceding week.\u00c2\u00a0 The Phillies responded to the slight by pounding the future Hall-of-Famer for seven runs over 5.2 innings.\u00c2\u00a0 The much less-heralded Kyle Kendrick showed his gratitude for the run support by pitching effectively over the same distance, allowing just three hits and one run courtesy of a solo shot by Andre Ethier.\u00c2\u00a0 Chase Utley hit a solo home run of his own in the seventh inning to make it a final score of 8-1 to the Phillies.<\/p>\n

In yesterday’s game, the Phillies’ ace Cole Hamels gave up just two runs over seven innings as the Dodgers were outplayed yet again.\u00c2\u00a0 Rookie Clayton Kershaw was pulled after four innings having been tagged for six runs, with Pat Burrell taking a particular liking to his offerings.\u00c2\u00a0 ‘Pat the Bat’ launched a three-run bomb into the seats in the first inning and followed it up with a double in the fourth on his way to a 3 for 5 night.\u00c2\u00a0 Philadelphia then jumped on reliever Jason Johnson to pad their lead by a further three runs, eventually winning 9-2.<\/p>\n

The starting pitchers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hiroki Kuroda<\/strong>(7-9, 3.97 ERA) – Kuroda joined the Dodgers over the off-season after pitching in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in his native Japan for eleven years.\u00c2\u00a0 Kuroda was a free agent rather than needing to go through the ‘posting’ process that involves Major League teams making blind bids simply to earn the right to talk to the player.\u00c2\u00a0 Coupled with the relatively weak MLB Free Agency pitching class, this made Kuroda one of the most attractive potential signings on the market and a host of teams competed for his services.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dodgers’ offer of a three-year deal worth $35.5 million (approximately \u00c2\u00a3125k per week) was enough to secure his signature and he has proved to be a solid addition to their rotation.\u00c2\u00a0 While not over-powering, Kuroda uses a good assortment of breaking pitches alongside his fastball and relies on good command and location to keep the batters off balance.<\/p>\n

Joe Blanton<\/strong>(6-12, 4.87 ERA) – When the Phillies traded for Blanton in mid-July, it caused more than a few raised eyebrows.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that Blanton is a bad starter by any stretch of the imagination, but there were several reasons to question how much of a positive impact he might have.\u00c2\u00a0 The first half to his 2008 campaign with Oakland hadn’t gone well: he was 5-12 with a 4.96 ERA in his twenty starts with the A’s.\u00c2\u00a0 More particularly, his reputation as being quite a hittable pitcher (with a below average strikeout rate) didn’t seem to match up well with his new home ballpark, which is a notorious bandbox.\u00c2\u00a0 In six starts with the Phillies, Blanton has gone 1-0 with his sole win coming on the back of an excellent seven-inning performance against the Cardinals at the start of August.\u00c2\u00a0 The Phillies have won four of his six starts though.\u00c2\u00a0 Blanton utilizes a solid combination of four good pitches (fastball, slider, change and curve) which he can use to good effect if he is hitting his spots.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Things to look out for:<\/strong><\/p>\n